>> ooh! >> one of the most popular videos on the web when "amazing animals caught on tape" continues. ♪ like so many great pioneers before me, guided only by a dream. this morning on "early today," countdown in des moines. iowans have one more day to decide which gop candidate for president will get their vote. arson spree, authorities search for clues after dozens of fires are touched off in los angeles over the weekend. and riding high, side by side daredevils make a death defying jump to ring in the new side daredevils make a death defying jump to ring in the new year. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello and good morning. i'm lynn berry. i'm ver ron co-de la cruz. today we begin with the final push. republican presidential candidates have one more day to gain the support of iowa's first

in the nation voters. mitt romney is ahead in the latest polls, but a late surge from rick santorum and a large number of iowa withans means this could soon be anyone's race. >> reporter: rick santorum, his tireless campaign across the state is finally paying off. santorum could win tuesday night. >> i said this is an episode of "survivor." if you can survive, with you never know what's going to happen. >> reporter: the new poll puts santorum third. but if you count voters polled on the last two days of the poll, santorum is tied with mitt romney at the top. >> i'm closer on the social issues with rick santorum on those three, no questions. >> reporter: mitt romney kept to his game plan.

>> president obama and i offer extraordinarily stark contrasts. >> reporter: ron paul with a shot at winning iowa ruled out a third party bid for now. >> i'm essentially tied for first place and why would i even consider doing anything like that? >> reporter: newt gingerich, 4 to 12%, looked for a bright spot. >> i was encouraged because 41% of the people in the iowan poll said they happen open to changing their minds. >> reporter: but at iowa's evangelical churches today, the buzz was about santorum. >> i'm going to take a closer look and see what he is really about. i'm not really satisfied with the other candidates right now. >> it's what rick santorum hopes for. in los angeles, dozens of cars have been set on fire in the past several days. authorities want to talk to a man seen leaving a popular structure in a popular tourist area of hollywood where one of

the fires started. the fires have spread to apartments in some cases. police are asking the public to lock their cars and leave their car parking lot lights on at night. the search continues this morning for the killer of a park ranger. a driver ignored a checkpoint at the park. dozens of officers are combing the area. the suspect is also suspected in the shooting of four people just hours earlier. now here's a look at other stories making news early today in america. for folks in arkansas, 2012 kicked off with the same mystery that kicked off 2011. for the second straight year, a flock of dead birds has fallen from the sky. animal control officers picked up dozens of them for testing. the new year brought chaos

at one denver hotel. guests were locked out of their rooms when key card software systems crashed after midnight. there were reports of scuffles and guests becoming ill. the system was up and running again after 3:00 a.m. over 1,000 new yorkers took the polar plunge. the annual event raised money that will be donated to a summer camp for kids with life threatening illnesses. and timely, philadelphia's broad street was filled with a colorful brigade of revelers sunday. the parade brought out crowds of spectators to the new york tradition in which participants in elaborate costumes compete for cash prizes. that guy should definitely get something. now for a look at your national and regional weather, here is nbc meteorologist bill karins with the weather channel forecast. happy new year. >> happy new year to you. have a good weekend? >> yeah. it was fantastic.

i had the night off. >> good for you. and you? >> i was asleep by 10:00. i tried. i tried my best. good morning, everyone. i hope you had a wonderful ringing in of the new year. we're starting off the new year with some interesting weather. arctic blast of air is coming down from the north. the lake-effect snow machine has been turned on high. we're cooling things off for our friends in the southeast, which has had a mild period as of late. the northern windchills are in northern minnesota and the dakotas. we had a big windstorm over the weekend. we started off with gusty winds on saturday and over by the rockies and into the central plains. yesterday, all through the great lakes. but now that that storm is gone and the pressure gradient is all set up, the door is open for that cold blast of air. and the waters are still relatively warm for this time of year over the great lakes. we've had a mild december out there. now, with that cold air going over the warm water of the great lakes, the snow machine is on.

we had a lot of snow from erie to cleveland. buffalo, you're going to get heavy snow as we go throughout the day today. also, now we're getting the snow coming off of lake ontario. some of those areas could get the 2 to 3 inches. grand rap i didn't knidrapids, around areas of northern michigan, we've had blustery conditions and snow. the highest snowfall totals will be one batch here off of lake erie and another one in the favorite area north of syracuse, the tug hill plateau. we have the gusty winds, cold air arriving. if you're not near the lakes, it's a quiet day. it's going to be chilly and windy out there from the central plains, but we don't have a lot of troublesome weather as long as you're away from the great lakes. that's a look at your national forecast. now here is a look at the weather outside your window. so, pittsburgh, you'll see snow showers on and off. i know chicago has been reporting light snow off and on

over the last three hours. minneapolis, very cold. one of the coldest days of the winter so far for you. we've got our first big lake ek. it's interesting, because a lot of kids are still off of school, so probably not too many snow days. >> i want to thank you for the new year's president yesterday. it was so nice in new york. >> the warm air is coming to an end. >> i didn't have to wear a heavy coat. thank you. thanks, bill. investors look ahead at how powerball officials are sweetening the pot. your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. actor tom cruise, he rings in the new year on top. who says you need a helmet to play football? you're watching "early today."

good morning, and welcome back to "early today." i'm veronica de la cruz. here are some of your top headlines this morning. iran claims it has created its first nooul nuclear fuel rod and

placed it in a research reactor despite the attempts to stop iran for developing a nuclear weapon. the strait of ho are rmuz, a critical pass for part of the world's oil supply. in the philippines, one boy was injured by gunfire welcoming in the new year. so many mistakens had to be diverted because of all the smoke in the air. the start of a new year and a pair of lawyers became the bifrt couple to take advantage of same-sex marriage in delaware. english prince phillip joined the family for the new year's day service. former x games medalest levi levalley broke his own record for a snowmobile jump, more than

400 feet, doing so as another athlete made the jump side by side on a motorcycle. wow. >> and now here's an early look at one of your top health headlines. medications to treat attention hyperactivity deficit disorder are in short supply. the "new york times" is reporting the shortage is mainly due to low manufacturing limits set by the drug enforcement administration no an effort to minimize abuse. for more info on this and other health stories, check out the health page online at msnbc.com. u.s. markets are closed for the new year had holiday, but here is an early look at how they ended out the year. the dow closed at 217 friday after falling 69 points. the s&p was down 5. the nasdaq lost eight. trading this morning, in tokyo,

the nikkei dipped 56 points. in hong kong, the hang seng was up 36. the new year marks the start of a new quarter of wall street. we're going to take a quick check off business in a break, but a quick break right here.

good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." in sports, last night it was all or nothing for the new york giants as they claimed the nfl's last playoff spot. here is nbc's mario solis with an early look at all your sports headlines. good morning. win and you're in, simple enough. and the new york giants made it look easy. g-men made it look easy. cruz does the rest. going 74 yards to the house, giants up, 7-0 and never look back. they beat dallas, 31-14. they play atlanta next sunday. that's because the falcons made the buccaneers walk the plate. atlanta was up 42-0 in the first quarter. that's a new franchise record in the first half. speaking of franchise records, the packers set one against the lions with aaron rodgers, the

backup went out and threw a record. packers won and the lions will host the saints in the nfc wild card game. san diego beat oakland, 38-26. richard goodman returns a kickoff 105 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter. the win eliminates the raiders and even though the broncos left yesterday, they'll host the steelers in the afc wild card game. jets will be watching the playoffes from home, mark sanchez losing against the dolphins. finally, the most important piece of football equipment has to be the helmet, right? the texans brian bremen may disagree. no helmet, but that doesn't stop him. take a second look.

his head hits the player. although he claims to be okay, some would argue that before that play he wasn't okay to begin with. "war horse" gains traction. your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. you're watching "early today."

welcome back to "early today" on this monday morning. as advertised, the door is finally open to all that really cold air from the arctic to come down from canada. now it's heading our way. this is the temperature in canada right now. some of the coldest air out there is now in central canada. that's the air that's going to be surging down over the east as we go throughout the next couple days. here is a look at what we call our temperatures a little bit off the surface. this area of white is the core of the coldest air surrounding by the pinks and the purples and the blues. you notice there's really no cold air at all in the west. as we track it through the next five days, we watch the peak of it tuesday and wednesday it begins to move out. this is only a short lived kick of that really cold air. notice by the time we get to thursday and friday, it's gone out of new england. we get another surge of cooler air to the northern plains, but that's really about it. it's only a two or three-day event for most of us. temperatures in the last 24 hours have dipped from chicago to kansas city.

down about 14 degrees. even texas has cooled off over the last 24 hours. and that cool air will arrive on the east coast during the day today along with gusty winds. of course, this time of year when you get the cold air, the first shots of it, lake-effect snow is flying. all the white on this map is areas of snow. a lot of it from grand rapids, erie, the drive along the lakeshore of erie probably one of the worst of the dayed the. here is a look at your forecast. we're watching the cold air. temperature today, highs only in the 20s. this is the coldest day of the winter from minneapolis to chicago to the great lakes. definitely the warmer air, a little warmer from texas down along the gulf. as we look towards tomorrow, that's when the cold air arrives in the big cities of the eve. temperatures will be in the 20s with windchills in the single digits and teens during the day. a little bit of a shock. we'll get used to it, though. if you're watching us on wrc 4 in washington, d.c., see heart that explores 19th century american innovation at the

smithsonian american art museum. that's your "early today" event of the day. >> i love d.c. it's a great city. >> of course. the capital. >> and a good event, as well. thanks, bill. now here's a look at this morning's headlines in entertainment. tom cruise's new mission remained impossible to beat at the box office. "mission impossible-ghost p protoca protocal" came in first at the box office. sher lom holmes took second place with $22.1 million. and "alvin and the chipmunks chipwrecked" came in third. "war horse" finished a strong fourth with almost $17 million, likely benefiting from world of mouth. "the girl with the dragon too" continued to underperform in fifth place.

it came in with $16.3 million. sources tell tmz the marriage of katy perry and russell brand had issues due to katy being a partier and russell being a home body. part of the courtship is going out together. >> sources say he wanted some children and for her to settle down. she's at the peak of her career and wanted to tour and party. >> that's so tough. and the other thing that bums me out about marriage these days, they seem like they only last for about five minutes. >> or 72 days. >> i mean, i kind of feel like in my parents' age, people would really kind of get through problems and talk things out. then you have these marriages that last a lifetime. too bad.

let's take a look at this story that comes to us from tam tampa, florida, where one couple began the new year much the same way they ended 2011. in one night, blake and jocelyn blair became the parents of the first and lady babies of the year. they welcomed jenna into the world at 11:59 and leah at midnight on new year's day. the twins' parents say the birth was a surprise since the girls weren't due until january 26th and they can't think of a better way to start off 012. can you imagine that being your birthday? >> you know what is even worse? you were the second one born and your twin was born right before you. >> always going to be the oldest. i'm veronica de la cruz. this is "early today," just your first top of the day today on your nbc station.

4:28 is the time right now. 38 degrees here in the nation's capital on this second day of the brand new year. good morning to you. i'm joe krebs. >> and i'm eun yang. welcome to "news 4 today" for this january 2nd, 2012. the republican race to win iowa remains at a toss-up on the eve of the state's caucuses. the presidential hopefuls will be campaigning hard today trying to win over iowa's many uncommitted voters. the latest poll numbers from the des moines register show mitt romney as the front-runner with ron paul right behind him.

however, rick santorum is climbing quickly and remains within striking distance in third place. >> i want to take a closer look and just see what he is really truly about because i'm not really satisfied with the other candidates right now. >> looking past iowa, santorum is campaigning hard in both new hampshire and south carolina but polling poorly in both states. however, that could change if he pulls off the upset in iowa. newt gingrich is battling the flu as he makes his final push in iowa, but he blames attack ads put out by romney supporters for causing his political ailments in the hawkeye state and says he should have responded more aggressively. 45% of all tv ads in iowa were attack ads against gingrich. gingrich says he feels romney-boated, referring to the super pac's swift boat ads in 2004 that damaged john kerry's